The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Cheonha Jeil Sajae (25)
Beneath the Shattering Moonlight
Come out? Who’s he talking to?
Jin Muok turned his head and spotted a figure slowly rising from the lake.
Splaaash!
She hadn’t shaken the water from her clothes, so every curve of her body showed plainly through the fabric.
“…!”
Jin Muok was no lecher. Nor did he dislike women. That he had never married in his previous life was simply the way things had turned out.
Of course a man’s eyes drift toward a beautiful woman; it’s only human nature. Though my body is ten years old, my mind is that of an adult.
From that standpoint, the woman who emerged from the lake was so strikingly sensual that Jin Muok couldn’t help but start in surprise.
“What is it, Old Man?”
Well, I suppose.
They say a man will chase women as long as he can lift a pair of chopsticks, and Dang Cheon, with a constitution every bit as strong as a young man’s, can hardly be blamed for liking young women.
But then.
Was this old fellow a pervert?
The woman, who boasted a figure so impossibly magnificent, turned out to be a girl!
Given the undeniable contours of her body, I had assumed she was past her prime, but judging by the face the moonlight revealed, she couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen.
Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine, but.
‘Oh no.’
Her beauty, it seemed, stopped at the neck. The girl’s face was so horribly festered it was nearly impossible to look at.
Oozing and scabbed over in patches, her features would be hard to meet even for someone of considerable nerve.
Splashing through the water, the girl arrived before Dang Cheon and Jin Muok and bowed deeply.
“Good, good. How was your day?”
When the girl straightened from her bow, Jin Muok was startled.
What lovely eyes.
Despite an appearance that could only be called hideous, her eyes, holding the starlight in their entirety, shone like fireflies, and Jin Muok found himself nodding without meaning to.
Then the girl began to sign.
Sign language, at its core, conveys meaning through simple hand gestures.
Yet it requires an array of facial expressions and body language to carry its precise meaning, so even Jin Muok, who knew no sign language, could roughly guess what she was saying.
At first, greetings and small talk about her daily life.
Then, after a stretch of this and that, an air of worry.
And then.
Ttu-uung!
When the girl fixed him with an irritated expression, Jin Muok sighed inwardly.
Women, as a rule, care about their appearance. They want to meet others looking their very best. That is why they don’t face anyone without an appointment.
Regardless of age.
In short, from the girl’s point of view, I was an uninvited guest.
‘Argh, seriously!’
I was dragged here against my will too, you know.
He felt a little wronged, but before Jin Muok could say anything, Dang Cheon chuckled heartily.
“This child is an old acquaintance of mine, or rather, a disciple of an acquaintance.”
And so?
The girl’s sullen expression showed no sign of softening. Being an old man, he seemed to have no idea about the sensitive minds of women.
“Well, you see, this child said she wanted to meet you.”
Thud!
When did I ever say that!
I’ve never even seen this brat before!
Dumbfounded and nearly choking on his own indignation, Jin Muok whipped his head around toward Dang Cheon.
Wait just a moment, this old man?
But Dang Cheon desperately avoided Jin Muok’s gaze and began spinning out one tall tale after another.
“This child has a deep connection with the Northern Gale Storm, you know. You know, the Northern Gale Storm? Well, the Northern Gale Storm’s people heard of your martial talent and couldn’t contain their interest.”
Embellishment piled upon embellishment; there is no greater example.
Had this old man always been such a smooth talker?
As Dang Cheon strained every nerve, parading a whole new world of boasting in an effort to soothe the girl’s heart, Jin Muok glanced at him sidelong with an expression of sheer disbelief, and soon his shoulders sagged.
Fine, I give up. Do as you please.
‘Just make sure you put everything back where it belongs.’
As Jin Muok turned his head, face slack with resignation, he noticed something.
‘That’s…!’
Scars, plainly visible.
Bruises, scrapes, and assorted other wounds stood out across the girl’s entire body, and Jin Muok’s eyes narrowed.
That’s not the kind of scar you get by accident. That one, specifically.
‘Abuse!’
Of course Dang Cheon hadn’t done it. If he had committed such a shameless act, he would never have brought the girl face to face with me.
Jin Muok, observing the old man and the girl chatting from a step removed, shook his head and plopped down on the ground.
‘It’s not my place to meddle. Still, they really are touching.’
They must be terribly close. Having been apart these past few days, they’re making up for lost time in a big way.
These past few days… ah.
So the Woomun Family incident had the Tang Clan in an uproar, and the old man couldn’t move freely either.
‘Don’t you worry about a thing, old man. I’ve already cleaned house with my senior brother.’
Jin Muok, nodding with quiet satisfaction, caught the girl’s eye as she finished signing with Dang Cheon and made her way back toward the water’s edge.
Brr.
Oh, great.
The girl swept Jin Muok with a frosty glare and slipped into the water, and Dang Cheon plopped down beside him.
“Who is she?”
He had no particular interest in the girl, but out of basic courtesy toward elders, Jin Muok asked halfheartedly. Dang Cheon answered at once, as if he’d been waiting for the question.
I was hoping you’d ask!
“Technically speaking, she’s the child Junsung left behind.”
Dang Junsung. Dang Cheon’s second son.
Unlike the ambitious and calculating Dang Junkyu, Dang Junsung was gentle by nature and had forged warm friendships with fellow members of the martial world.
Still, he and Jin Muok had no real connection, and they had barely exchanged more than a greeting or two.
And yet he left a child behind?
“Junsung disappeared three years ago. And now that so much time has passed without his return…”
He must have already left this world!
Overshadowed by Dang Junkyu, Dang Junsung’s martial skill was rarely discussed, yet it was first-rate. Moreover, he had been with the Tang Clan Thirty-Three Elites, the pride of the Tang Clan, so he would have overcome nearly any difficulty with ease.
“That boy was devoted to his family, to a ridiculous degree. He wore his doting-father reputation like a badge of honor. And when a child like that hasn’t returned to his family’s arms in over a thousand days, what do you suppose that means?”
Of course, the Tang Clan had combed through every corner of the Central Plains, but they had found no trace of Dang Junsung or the Thirty-Three Elites.
One year, then two…
As those cruel years wore on, even Dang Cheon’s thinking, once harder than steel, had developed cracks.
“Once that boy vanished, his wife wasted away and followed her husband into the grave. So in all the world, I am the only one left to look after that child.”
Which means the scars on the girl’s body were certainly not received within the Tang Clan. Even without Dang Cheon’s influence, no one in the Tang Clan would dare mistreat Dang Junsung’s child.
Not even the clan head, Dang Junkyu.
In that instant, a thought struck Jin Muok’s mind like lightning, and he firmly waved his hand.
“No, that won’t do.”
“……!”
“I feel for her, but I haven’t the slightest intention of looking after her, so give up.”
Such a devil of a man!
At Jin Muok’s uncanny perceptiveness, Dang Cheon’s mouth fell open.
Sure enough, this one is—
‘Exactly like Bukjin Gwangpung!’
This is what they call being caught before you’ve even drawn your cards.
“W-wait, just hear me out!”
“Enough. Believe it or not, I have more than enough on my plate.”
I need to root out the spies coiled up inside the Murim Alliance who are colluding with the Demonic Cult, and I need to prepare for the Blood Demon, who might return at any time.
And I need to train relentlessly for all of it.
I really do have a lot to do!
Jin Muok raised his palm and made his refusal unmistakable, and Dang Cheon, growing desperate, kept curling and uncurling his fingers.
“Just listen to what I—!”
“No.”
Jin Muok refused flatly and pressed his palm against the ground to push himself up.
“But…”
“I said no.”
“……Why did you send me that secret letter?”
His tone had changed. Dang Cheon had addressed him with condescension the whole time, but now it gradually shifted into something resembling respect.
Was it just because he wanted me to look after the girl?
“Hmm.”
Jin Muok smacked his lips, then lifted and dropped his shoulders.
“The Tang Clan has been strange lately. Of all things, Demonic Qi stirring inside the Tang Clan? Does that even make sense?”
“And so?”
“What do you mean, ‘and so’? Demonic Qi that never existed before is welling up everywhere, and—ah, Bukjin Gwangpung was the one who said so, mind you—there was no Demonic Qi in the Tang Clan at all, not a trace. Anyway, since it’s surging like this, I wanted to ask you what’s behind it.”
“Me?”
*Nod*.
“What does that have to do with you?”
When Dang Cheon asked, Jin Muok wrinkled his nose and answered at once.
“That’s what Northern Gale Storm would have done.”
For a split second, Dang Cheon’s eyes flashed.
“If it were Northern Gale Storm, he wouldn’t have turned his back on the demonic qi hanging over Tang Clan, or on the old master’s tears.”
“Even without knowing the reason?”
“Then I’ll need to find out, won’t I?”
Jin Muok let out a huge snort.
“Reasons are always whatever you make of them. Acting on what you see and feel—that’s Northern Gale Storm’s way.”
“You know Muok well.”
“Out of all one hundred eighty thousand li of the Zhongyuan, I doubt there’s anyone who knows Northern Gale Storm better than me.”
I’m the one who is him, so who could know me better than I do?
“But Northern Gale Storm’s goodwill toward you, old man, ends here. I hate to sound heartless, but we don’t have the time to spend playing nursemaid.”
Dang Cheon gazed at Jin Muok, who turned his head as if to say the rest was his problem to solve, and murmured as though to himself.
“So that’s why I want to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Not you—I’d say it’s Northern Gale Storm I want to ask.”
“Oh, come on!”
Jin Muok, finally losing his temper, shot to his feet.
“This isn’t something that gets solved by digging in your heels! It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t—!”
“Wana!”
At Dang Cheon’s call, the girl who had been submerged in the water poked her head out.
“Come take a look at this!”
Something close to Manchun Hwau.
Picking one of the three hundred and twenty-eight paintings that Jin Muok had chosen, Dang Cheon held it up and shouted.
And then.
Jin Muok.
Saw it.
Chwararaaraak—!
The girl, rising against the current of the river, swept her arms in a half-circle, and hundreds of spray droplets scattered through the air, filling the entire lakeshore!
“That’s—!”
A girl drifting through the air, cradling the moonlight!
The feast of water droplets her hands conjured was beyond any doubt—
Manchun Hwau.
Though she had borrowed the water’s help, the girl had undeniably reproduced one of the three hundred and twenty-eight paintings, the one closest to completion.
So achingly beautiful.
“Unbelievable.”
Without so much as glancing at her, Dang Cheon murmured in a sigh, while Jin Muok stood transfixed, staring at the girl.
“Dip your hand in the water.”
As if bewitched, Jin Muok stepped to the water’s edge and plunged his hand in.
Jjeeeeeong—!
A cold that seeped straight into the bone! This was no ordinary lake!
“A lake with five times the water pressure of ordinary water and a liquid six times colder. Nothing lives here—no fish, no seaweed. A natural lake of the Hohae kind.”
Dang Cheon spoke through gritted teeth.
“That’s why it’s the only place that can hold back Wana’s affliction. That is Daera Oknyeoji.”
“Daera Oknyeoji…”
“Until last year, Wana was no different from other children. Bright and cheerful, she chattered away in a voice as clear as jade beads. But this old man’s greed ruined everything.”
Dang Cheon had kept Dang Wana close—she was the daughter of a child he had lost, and she showed a remarkable talent for martial arts—and it was he who had first shown her the cursed painting.
“The moment I finished the one closest to Manchun Hwau among the three hundred and twenty-eight, I showed it to Wana. I wanted to see what interpretation a pure, untainted sensibility would come up with.”
“And that girl, after seeing it—?”
“Wana lost herself to the painting, refusing food and shutting herself away for days on end. At first I thought she was simply absorbed, but that wasn’t it.”
Her face was slowly coming apart. The longer she lost herself in the painting, the more Dang Wana’s features melted away.
“Could it be…?”
When Jin Muok started in alarm, Dang Cheon was startled in a different way.
“So Muok has taken a monster as his disciple.”
Dang Cheon caught his breath and confessed, as if sighing.
“Only now do I understand. That child was born with Banggak Mayan.”
Banggak Mayan!
A divine eye of unparalleled rarity, one that lets its wielder imitate an opponent’s movements, however crudely, from a single glance.
Being able to copy another’s martial arts is threatening enough by itself, but the true horror of Banggak Mayan lies in its ability to dissect the nature of the techniques it has replicated, grasping even their strengths and weaknesses.
“But everything comes with a price. A price as harsh as Heavenly Punishment.”
That was the skin-merging phenomenon and the aphasia that Dang Wana was suffering from.
“In the end, we discovered that the only way to hold the illness at bay is to soak in the Daera Oknyeoji once a week. Yet staying in too long creates its own problems, so it’s a rather troublesome situation.”
Once Manchun Hwau had ended, Dang Wana descended slowly and made her way to Dang Cheon, who was clutching his head, and wrapped her arms around him.
I’m fine, Grandpa.
‘Huh.’
Jin Muok had no choice but to concede.
In this moment, she was the goddess of water and mistress of the moon, the ruler of Jiuzhaigou, and the savior of Dang Cheon, who was tormented by guilt. That much was undeniable.
“If someone finds out that Wana can perform techniques approaching Manchun Hwau, that cold-blooded head of the clan will try to use this child. And she can barely manage Qi Circulation in her condition, too.”
It’s a pitiful thing.
―Still, that’s a problem.
Since Dang Wana was right there, Jin Muok made his refusal clear through Voice Transmission.
Absolutely not, never, no way!
But his resolve crumbled before the trump card Dang Cheon had prepared.
―What if I cure your senior brother?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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